There’s a chicken down at St James City Farm in Gloucester who’s a little confused about his origins. Actually, he thinks he’s a duck.

His best friend is a duck and he hangs around with the other ducks, doing ducky things and generally have a quacking good time.

He’s a lucky little fellow as he was the only one of six chicken eggs that hatched a month ago at the Albany Street centre.

RJ the chick with his best friend (Image: COPYRIGHT SIMON PIZZEY)

Being a lone chick, he spent a week with weekend manager Ryan Taylor, 19, sitting on his shoulder while he got on with his work around the farm. But when two ducklings hatched a week later, Ryan put the chick in with the ducklings and they bonded.

"They get on really well"

“Because he was the only chick to hatch, he spent a week with me,” said Ryan, 19, who is an agriculture student at Hartpury College during term time. “He would jump on to my hand and run up to my shoulder to sit. He even slept there when he was tired.

RJ the chick was the only egg of his batch to hatch. Now he thinks he's a duck (Image: COPYRIGHT SIMON PIZZEY)

“The volunteers here named him RJ, short for Ryan Junior, because he was always with me.

“When two of the duckling eggs hatched, we put them in together and, after a day or so when they weren’t so sure of each other, they settled down together and got on really well. The chick would jump on the top of the ducklings when they sat down and nuzzle against them.”

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Alan the lamb thought he was human

Having animals unsure of who they are isn’t new for the farm. They recently had a goose brought up with ducks, and before that there was an orphaned lamb, who was reared by centre staff and thought it was a human.

“He would walk around and follow us and be completely happy around humans. He thought he’s one of us. He was called Alan.”